Swiatek: "I am going to approach Cincinnati as a training tournament"

Iga Swiatek is back. The Polish player did not appear in the Toronto tournament citing accumulated fatigue from the recent Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but now she returns to a tournament where she has historically had mixed feelings. It's not her favorite surface, nor her favorite balls... but Iga already knows what it's like to triumph in the United States: she did it in 2022, when she captured her first US Open title and silenced those who doubted her level on hard courts. The goal? To do it again and taste the sweetness of a Grand Slam double in 2024.

It won't be easy, for sure, and the first step towards success in New York is none other than the WTA Cincinnati 2024. Here she comes in as the top seed at a time when the elite of the circuit is struggling: Gauff is going through a sort of crisis, Sabalenka is not convincing, and the rest perhaps do not offer long-term guarantees. An ideal scenario for Iga to take advantage of the chaos... but she herself admits that she approaches this tournament as a "training," a preparation for Flushing Meadows. Nobody like her, for sure, to explain it in depth.

"I'm taking everything step by step, taking it easy. I know that everything won't be perfect from the start, but I've had a couple of days to acclimatize to the surface. I try to work every day with the goal of stepping onto the court knowing I can do better. I'm going to approach this tournament as a training tournament. Not in the sense that I don't care, but because I want to implement in my tennis everything I've been testing lately. I think it's the best way to approach this event."

It will be Iga's first tournament on hard courts since March, when she lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova in Miami. Along the way, a rollercoaster of emotions: from the greatest joy and excitement (the French Open title, including a dramatic match against Naomi Osaka along the way) to the disappointment and subsequent tranquility of the Olympics, where she won the bronze medal. After breaking down in tears following her semifinal defeat, it was impossible to avoid the question of what the Olympics meant to the world number one.

"It wasn't a normal tournament, that's for sure. I'm happy to have been able to deal with all the pressure and to have won a medal. I felt that after the Games, I needed to reset, focus only on recovering my technique and spend hours on the court. This is the perfect place to do it. I've entered a different rhythm, I'm solely focused on training, on the time I spend on court, nothing else. I think that helps me rest off the court", Iga pointed out.

A BALL CHANGE... TO HER BENEFIT?

Cincinnati has decided to make a new modification regarding the balls used, reverting to those from 2022 (Wilson Regular Duty) and leaving behind last season's balls (Wilson Heavy Duty). It's always a pleasure to see how an elite player analyzes the technical aspects this change brings: in theory, it should quicken and accelerate the game, resulting in a slightly faster surface.

"Last year we tried the Wilson Heavy Duty balls, and this year we're back to the Regular ones. We haven't played with these balls for two years, another thing we need to focus on when stepping onto the court. They are lighter, lose their weight after a while because the fuzz disappears after 15 minutes. I must focus on adjusting my game to this ball, which is what I'll do. I remember winning the US Open in 2022 with this ball... I don't know how I did it! It was crazy. At the beginning of the tournament, would you have imagined it? I can't explain it", Swiatek noted, who was one of the players who protested against the ball used at the US Open. All that remains is for the Polish player to return to action, with her debut scheduled for this Wednesday or Thursday.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Swiatek: "Voy a afrontar Cincinnati como un torneo de entrenamiento"